{"id":25844,"date":"2024-05-17T14:37:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T21:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/kone-is-shaking-up-the-industry-with-bim\/"},"modified":"2024-05-17T14:37:48","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T21:37:48","slug":"kone-is-shaking-up-the-industry-with-bim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/kone-is-shaking-up-the-industry-with-bim\/","title":{"rendered":"KONE is Shaking Up the Industry with BIM"},"content":{"rendered":"

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KONE supplies elevators, escalators, autowalks and maintenance and modernization solutions. I sat down with Kenneth Flannigan to discuss how BIM is changing KONE and what it means to the industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\"Kenneth
Ken Flannigan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

KONE<\/a> operates in over 60 countries, has around 1.3 million units in service, and moves over one billion people per day. The company\u2019s mission is \u201cto improve the flow of urban life.\u201d Kenneth Flannigan<\/strong> is the BIM Solution Owner for the company. He acknowledges that even though KONE provides equipment and software innovation, in this day and age that\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a
\ncritical path item. How innovative are we if we\u2019re not working on every single
\nproject in a shared 3D environment, like our customers?\u201d Flannigan asks.<\/p>\n

KONE serves
\nboth indirect and paying customers. It works with influencers like architects
\nand with general contractors, builders, and construction managers. It also has
\na life-cycle relationship with building owners, which is evidenced by the fact
\nthat over 30% of the company\u2019s sales come from maintenance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Time to Move to
\nModeling<\/h2>\n

Flannigan admits that companies in KONE\u2019s market are a bit behind when it comes to utilizing BIM. He emphasizes, however, that KONE has taken determined steps to implement BIM and is now using the technology successfully in a few large projects. He mentions 110 North Wacker in Chicago and A\u2019DAM in Amsterdam as examples of extensive use of BIM and 3D modeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can
\nshoehorn BIM into so many things, including our four supply lines and 40 some-odd
\nfront lines that are not just manufacturing but also installing and servicing \u2013
\nreal boots on the ground stuff,\u201d Flannigan observes.<\/p>\n

He notes that
\nit\u2019s hard in his business to outsource BIM \u2013 you have to have professionals who
\nboth know a company\u2019s equipment and can operate in a BIM environment.<\/p>\n

Bringing BIM to the Front
\nLine<\/h2>\n

Choosing
\nthe right elevators for a building is not a straightforward issue. The components
\nin a mass customization model theoretically allow one supply line to provide a staggering
\n100 billion combinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s
\ntrying to address that issue, but what most people aren\u2019t trying to address in
\nour industry is how do we use BIM models to do something more efficiently on-site?
\nHow do we improve the construction process?\u201d<\/p>\n

Flannigan
\nnotes that having a BIM model of elevators or escalators is not enough. He
\nwants to coordinate and communicate in 3D as many mechanical and structural
\nengineers are already doing. He wants to make sure that customer solutions
\nengineers on every front line become BIM experts, working in the local language
\nand as close to the customer as possible.<\/p>\n

\"-\"\"-\"<\/figure>\n

A Life-Cycle Opportunity<\/h2>\n

The primary
\nfocus of KONE\u2019s efforts with respect to BIM is on construction coordination.<\/p>\n

The owner
\nside of the business is also moving in the same direction, albeit at a bit
\nslower pace.<\/p>\n

Flannigan
\nthinks the company will hand over the same kind of information as they do today
\nafter project completion, but as a model in a virtual container. The model
\nfeeds into connected IoT systems as well as facility management systems. Modeling
\nwill save on life-cycle costs for owners; for example, by cutting down on time
\nspent on service calls, a task KONE performs about 70,000 times a day.<\/p>\n

Traditionally,
\na service technician arrives on a large campus with little information \u2013 just the
\nbroken elevator\u2019s number and some alert information. Finding the exact location
\nof the problem elevator can take up 50% of the service call time. With BIM, the
\ninformation needed to find and access the elevator can be readily available.<\/p>\n

How to Support the
\nDecision-Makers<\/h2>\n

In order to
\nimprove the construction process, KONE needs to understand better how project
\nparticipants, especially architects, make decisions about elevators and
\nescalators. Having worked as an architect, Flannigan knows that architects have
\nto make accurate decisions with little information. In many cases, they just
\ncopy and paste something from a previous project.<\/p>\n

KONE has
\nbeen running decision-journey-mapping workshops with architects all over the
\nworld. It turns out that they often make important decisions before KONE or its
\ncompetitors are even involved in the project, decisions that can have a huge
\nimpact on the constructability and cost of the elevator. Sometimes architects
\nand contractors require solutions that are impossible to achieve with the
\nhighly regulated equipment involved.<\/p>\n

Support the
\ndecision journey and the configuration of elevators requires both software
\nsolutions and consulting. KONE provides an online service that allows the
\ncustomer to chat with an engineer. This is especially useful when the customer needs
\none-off, nonstandard solutions. KONE often prefers to guide customers to a
\nstandard solution, but customized options must always be available, Flannigan
\nbelieves.<\/p>\n

Towards a Collaborative 3D
\nEnvironment<\/h2>\n

BIM is an
\nelemental component of what KONE offers. The company is developing into a 3D
\ncollaborative environment in which all participants communicate by means of
\nmodels, not documents.<\/p>\n

The market
\nseems to be ready for this shift, and not just for huge projects, as Flannigan
\npoints out: \u201cWe have increased these numbers about 110% year over year. We\u2019ve
\nseen growth in the requests for BIM and for 3D coordination. We\u2019ve seen a spike
\nin customers wanting three- dimensional models instead of 2D documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

But KONE is
\nnot stopping there. The company has started doing 4D simulation for tasks like
\nequipment routing, site logistics, and steel construction sequencing. Flannigan
\nstates that the company insists on doing simulations that solve very specific
\nproblems, not the \u201cHollywood-style,\u201d whole building 4D simulation in which
\n\u201dtrucks roll on site.\u201d<\/p>\n

KONE wants to involve customers in the development of the new ways of working. \u201cWe have to be extremely flexible in order to follow whatever they\u2019re expecting from us,\u201d Flannigan concludes.<\/p>\n

You can connect with Ken Flannigan on LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Title image: A\u2019DAM elevator shaft<\/em> (Depositphotos). The other photos are courtesy of KONE<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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